If you find yourself frequently waking up at 4am and can’t fall back asleep, therapy could provide stress management techniques and strategies to improve sleep hygiene.
Therapists can offer guidance around any mental health issues that are making it hard to sleep, including depression or anxiety which could be contributing to sleep problems.
Stress
Stress is often at the core of why people wake up at 4am and can’t return to sleep. Your brain triggers the “fight or flight” response in response to being stressed – which causes sharpened senses, increased blood pressure, quickened pulse and muscle tension – in order to respond swiftly and appropriately to threats that arise. While this process was vital to helping our hunter-gatherer ancestors survive, too much of it can become unhealthy and cause many other health issues.
Stressful events include work, relationship difficulties, financial issues and health conditions – however a few simple changes can significantly lower its effects on your life.
Another common cause of 4am wake-ups is that individuals are experiencing vivid dreams about specific events or situations from the past, or someone in their life that they miss who wants to reunite with them.
Wakening up at 4am may also be a telltale sign that you are experiencing a spiritual awakening or revelation, particularly after engaging in conversation with an entity from beyond that has altered your perspective on life in some way.
Hormonal Changes
While all sleepers may wake occasionally during the night, when it happens regularly and you are unable to go back to sleep it is considered insomnia. Unfortunately, insomnia affects many people- especially women- and can have long-term consequences that have serious repercussions for health and wellbeing.
Hormonal fluctuations are often at the heart of people waking up at 4am and being unable to fall back asleep, usually caused by menstrual cycles, pregnancy or perimenopause. High progesterone levels and decreasing estrogen can negatively impact melatonin production which helps us regulate our sleep cycles.
Hormonal imbalances may also contribute to mood shifts, as hormones play a pivotal role in controlling our emotions and our wellbeing. This can result in feelings of stress, anxiety and depression – all which have direct bearing on how well we sleep at night.
Lifestyle modifications may help manage these factors and aid sleep, such as cutting back on caffeine before bed and using a white noise machine to block out distracting sounds that might disrupt it. If histamine reactions regularly disrupt your restful slumber, consider taking Unisom SleepTabs which contain doxylamine succinate for faster sleeping times – clinically proven to help promote restful slumber.
Emotional Issues
Stressful situations and bad habits like drinking coffee or alcohol before bed can have an adverse impact on our restful slumber, and may require us to address these issues to improve sleep quality. A therapist may help by offering advice on how best to deal with stressful situations and modify sleeping patterns accordingly; sleep experts often use cognitive-behavioral therapy or counseling methods as ways to address emotional causes for these problems; they can also offer support if we suffer depression by offering tailored treatments according to its severity.
Anxiety
As the pandemic has progressed, many people have had difficulty sleeping through the night due to noise or hay fever symptoms; but being awake at 4am without being able to fall back asleep could be a warning sign of more serious problems; anxiety affects over 40 million people in the UK alone!
Anxiety can be an unnerving feeling of doom that causes restless body movements, difficulty focusing and tightness in the chest. People living with anxiety have difficulty seeing things clearly and may tend to focus too heavily on smaller or insignificant issues; worry may center around work-related matters or everyday events like getting stuck in traffic or forgetting something important.
Stress and anxiety are part of life; however, when they persist for extended periods or interfere with daily tasks they become an issue. If this is an issue for you, speaking to your GP about it is recommended. They can assist you with finding treatment and support options, including self-help guides available via NHS inform.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) may help manage anxiety effectively, teaching you to identify distressing or anxious thoughts and use relaxation techniques when encountering situations that make you nervous. Medication may also be effective; your GP can advise which option would work best for you among modern antidepressants such as SSRIs/SNRIs/tricyclic and monoamine oxidase inhibitors etc.
